Shingles Symptoms

What is Shingles?

Shingles is a painful skin rash, which is caused by Herpes zoster and can be anyywhere on the body. Shingles is a viral disease. Shingles rash usually occurs in people older than 50 years, however shingles rash can occur in childrens too. Shingles disease usually occurs in people that have chickenpox in the past.

Shingles Symptoms

Some of the early signs of shingles include headache and fever and are followed by burning or shooting pain and tingling or itching generally located on one side of the body or face. The pain can be severe. Rash or blisters are present anywhere from 1 to 14 days. THe affected people also can expereince pain in arms and legs and sometomes in the upperhalf of the face .

Other possible shingles symptoms: You should consult with a doctor if you have any of the below shigles symptoms
1.Diarrhea
2.Dizziness
3.Fatigue
4.High Fever
5.Headache
6.Hearing loss
7.Nausea
8.Stomach pain
9. Weakness
10.Problem in thinking
 
The combination of these shingles symptoms with the shingles rash can be very unpleasant.

Causes of Shingles Disease

Shingles disease is caused by herpes zoster virus. Herpes zoster virus also causes chickenpox. People usually have chickenpox in their childhood. After the chickenpox illness is over, the virus remains in the nerve tissues in dormant state. After few years, usually in older people the virus may reappear and cause shingles rash.

Typically, the virus is in an inactive part of the spinal cord called the dorsal horn without problems, but at times, often decades later, the virus can become active.

The virus passes through the renewal of the spinal nerve to the skin, causing inflammation (redness of skin and skin rash), called herpes zoster.

With more than 7% to 10% of cases, shingles affects the eye, causing swelling, redness and scarring that can affect vision.
Herpes zoster can infect the ears. It is rare, but when it happens, it can lead to ear pain, dizziness, numbness and paralysis in the face. This is called Ramsay Hunt syndrome. The pain tends to increase after 48 hours, and other symptoms often improve.